He's an early riser . . . usually up at around seven or seven thirty. The early start isn't a big problem because we tend not to go out on Saturday night, partly because we live out in Lusk and it seems like a big deal to head into town, but mainly because . . . thankfully . . . I seem to be working all the time, either in the theatre or on films, and it's rarely a free night.

In a perfect world, I'd start my Sunday morning with a game of golf. I'm a member in Grangecastle, which is out in the Baldonnell/Clondalkin direction. I'd meet up with a few of the lads and spend the morning on the course before heading home and driving to the beach at Skerries for a walk with my wife and son. We'd go into one of the pubs out there for a bit of lunch. After that it'd be home for a snooze, finishing up with The Sopranos on E4 and then bed. Perfection!

It feels like quite a while since I've had a Sunday like that though. I've spent the last six weeks filming John Carney's new movie Zonad down in Avoca and we've either worked on Sunday or else I've been travelling up and down before or after filming. I play an escaped prisoner who lives in a village in the west of Ireland pretending to be an alien.

Don't ask. Can you imagine going in to the Irish Film Board and asking them for money for that?

I went straight from Zonad into rehearsals for 42nd Street, which opens in the Gaiety on 24 October for a two week run. I've never been in the show before but I went over with Pat McElwain, the director, to see the UK touring production in Cardiff a while back. It's a spectacular classic Broadway show . . . all toe-tapping dance numbers and familiar songs like 'Lullaby of Broadway' and 'We're In The Money'. It's a huge production, especially in choreography terms, and all of the actors and dancers are Irish. There are 50 dancers and singers and a 15-piece orchestra. It really shows the depth of talent that we have here that they've been able to cast all the roles from within Ireland. I don't dance, by the way, just in case anyone's getting worried. I can do a few steps, but I wouldn't expect anyone to pay to see me hoofing. And I don't take my clothes off either, like I did in The Full Monty, just in case people might be worried about that too.

42nd Street is set around the time of the Wall Street crash and I play a director, Julian Marsh, who's on his uppers . . . he's lost everything and is putting on one final show, 'Pretty Lady', to try and stage a comeback. The plot features an ageing star who wants to stay in the limelight (played by Brenda Brooks) and a young girl from the chorus who gets her big break (played by Bronwyn Andrews). Suffice to say that, like everything else in musical theatre, nothing goes smoothly.

We do a full day's rehearsal on Sunday . . . from ten till six. Everybody is there for the full day. We're working in a new dance studio called Spin out on the Longmile Road. There's not a lot of hanging around, thankfully, so the day goes fairly fast. When the dancers are off working on a number with Daryn Crosbie, the choreographer, then the director works with the principals on other parts of the show. Unfortunately there's no catering, so I either make myself a packed lunch of fruit and water or else bring a tenner with me and sneak out to McDonald's, depending on how I'm feeling. I don't make it home till seven or eight and then it's dinner, TV and bed.